An electric motor generates heat during operation. If the heat is not adequately dissipated, a performance and a reliability of the motor may be impaired. It has been an object of prior art motors to provide efficient and cost effective methods for dissipating heat generated by the motors to maximize the performance and the reliability thereof.
One such method is disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 7,002,267, hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The '267 patent illustrates a motor including a rotor and a stator assembly. The stator assembly, such as that disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,076,989, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, typically includes a hollow main body portion disposed around a rotor or shaft, end plates, and a cooling means. A magnetic field generated by the stator assembly causes a rotation of the rotor to produce mechanical energy. The motor disclosed in the '267 patent includes a plurality of coolant apertures. A pressurized coolant is caused to flow through the coolant apertures to cool the stator.
The manufacture of stator assemblies can be a timely and expensive process. Typical manufacturing steps include: shrink fitting an aluminum layer having machined fluid channels onto a stator, shrink fitting a cooling jacket over the aluminum layer, and finishing the assembly with aluminum end plates. It has been a continuing challenge to minimize the complexity and cost of manufacturing stator assemblies while maximizing a performance thereof.
It would be desirable to produce a stator assembly for use in a fluid cooled motor, wherein a complexity and a cost of manufacture of the stator assembly are minimized, and a performance and a cooling capability of the stator assembly are maximized.